For centuries the Nabataeans moved goods in the desert
by camel caravan. The camel was the backbone of their merchant
enterprise, and so we will need to learn a bit about camels before
we can set out on our caravan trip.

The camel has several features that make it ideally suited
to desert life. Its feet have wide pads with slimly built legs
that help it move easily over the desert.

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It can tolerate thirst for long periods, and can eat the
tough thorny shrubs in the desert that even sheep and goats pass
over. This is possible because their lips have tough stiff hair
that permits it to nose through thorny plants and root them out
or break them off. Its mouth is also specially adapted to chewing
and digesting these thorny bushes.

Below are some of the Arabic
names for the parts of a camel.

sanaam

hump

sulb

back

ghaarib

shoulders

farsam

the foot

khuff

soles of the feet

'arnuun

the bridge of the nose

khashm

nose

hijaaj

forehead

manhar

lower part of the neck

shabiib

tip of the tail

During the winter, the camel can go fifty
days without being watered, while in the heat of the summer it
may only go five days without water. In the winter the camel
can graze on the many green plants which contain enough moisture
to enable the camel to go without water. However, if it had a
choice, the camel would water every couple of days in the winter
and every day in the summer. When a thirsty camel smells water,
it rushes to the water, fights, and struggles to overcome anything
in its way. Sometimes watering troughs are broken or knocked
over from frenzied camels rushing for water.

Many of the desert Bedouin water their camels only every
three days. When a camel goes too long without water, it's eyes
fill with tears, they refuse to graze, and they begin to moan.
When they try to urinate and cannot, it is essential that they
are taken to water.

As the camel dehydrates, part of its hump wastes away.
The hydrogen contained in the hump is released, combining with
oxygen to create water for the camel. When the hump is wasted
away, the camel dies.

A thirsty camel can drink up to eighty liters of water
in one session, and can drink up to twenty liters in one minute.
The Bedouin often sing or chant while the camels drink, as they
believe it helps them drink to their full.

It used to be rumored that the camel had a special stomach
for holding water. This idea, however, is not true, but in the
first and second stomach of the camel, there are cavities which
can hold a certain amount of water which is not mixed with food,
since most of the food immediately moves on to the third stomach.

A a very ancient historian, Ashurbanipal, wrote about how
some Arab traders, dying of thirst, slit open the bellies of
their camels to get out water and thus survived!

The camel is a strange animal. It seems to lack the ability
to find it's own food. Often a shepherd goes with the camels
to show them where to find food. Other times, when the camels
are reasonably well fed, they are simply allowed to wander. They
may go for several days, before they return to their master for
water.

When the heat becomes intense, camels like to roll in the
dirt. When they pass a patch of land with soft earth, they kneel
down in it and begin to roll back and forth on their backs. In
many cases, these places become common for camels to roll in,
and a passing camel may roll, just because it is a place of rolling.
First they will sniff the ground, then kneel down, and then begin
to turn over on their back and necks, with their feet up in the
air, as if trying to bathe in dust. Camels will frequently crowd
together in a single-rolling ground, so expanding it's size that
in it sometimes covers an are of more than 100 meters in diameter.
The Bedouins claim that this rolling strengthens and soothes
the joints and has somewhat of a cooling and relaxing effect
on the camel's body.

Female camels go into heat in late fall or early winter.
Pregnancy lass for an entire year. Usually a single camel is
born, however, camels have been known to have twins. Two or three
years may elapse before the female gives birth to another young.

Right: Each year of the calf's life, it takes on a new
Arabic name.

Year

Male

Female

One

Hiwaar

Hiwaar

Two

labanii

labanii

Three

Hajj

Hajj

Four

aJadh'

aJadh'

Five

thanii (because it changes it's teeth)

thanii (because it changes it's teeth)

Six

rubii (and here it's growth is complete)

rubii (and here it's growth is complete)

Seven

jamal,

naaqa also known as a rub' when it can
bear young

Seventh

sudaas

sudaas

Eighth

Shaqq

al-naab

Ninth

qaarih muTir

qaarih faTir

The camel also supplied the Nabataeans with a ready
supply of meat. Often camels were slaughtered for an occasion,
and the whole tribe would partake in the meal.

When a Bedouin wants to show the highest level of honor
to a guest, a camel is slaughtered for him. Often the fat from
the hump is kept, and rendered down into gee or and used for
cooking or frying later.

Meat from the camel can be kept by cutting it into longs
thin strips that dry in the sun, usually draped over a bush.
(More on this later!)

(Left: Two camels get a ride in a pick-up
truck!)

The Nabataeans often lived off of the milk of camels. The
milk of the camel contains a higher proportion of Vitamin C than
cow's milk, and a higher ratio of fat, protein and mineral content
that either cow's or goat's milk.

While it is possible to make milk and cheese from any milk,
the Bedouin do not usually make butter from the milk. Bedouin
traditionally use milk from sheep and goats, dry it, and keep
it in fist size balls that resemble white rocks. This is known
as jamiid cheese. When they want to use it, they simply break
it up, and water, and grind it until it makes a cheese soup that
they cook their meat in and pour over rice. (We may get one of
these meals later.)

Camels prefer to live in groups of their own kind, and
like to travel in herds, as sheep and goats do. If it gets separated
from the herd, a camel's first concern is to rejoin the herd.

If a camel caravan comes to a river or a dangerous area,
the herdsman only needs to force one of the camels to proceed
and the others will readily join it. Even if the camel that had
been the first to refuse to cross the spot in question will,
when it sees the rest of the herd crossing, cross in turn behind
it, so as to keep up with the group and remain part of it.

The camel is also a mild-mannered animal, except in certain
cases during the mating season, or when it is being loaded. Free
roaming camels in the caravan are usually well mannered, while
camels tethered to a tread mill or used for plowing and other
hard work sometimes are ill mannered.

Camels can be led to the point of stupidity, and is often
prone to mishap in dangerous places. It cannot be trained as
a donkey, dog, or horse, and is much less attentive that these
other animals. The camel is also a coward, especially when compared
to other animals its size.

But how do get on a camel?

First let's check out the food we will take and
then we will see about riding camels...